Chapter 31
Alessandro
Two pink lines on this white stick changes everything. I had been preparing myself for this result ever since Sofia told me she suspected it, but now it’s starting to feel real.
Pregnant.
Sofia.
We’re going to have a baby.
We retreated to the bed after seeing the results, and she’s been nestled in my arms ever since.
The boat rocks us gently as the morning sun streams in.
Both of us are silent and processing. Is she excited?
Nervous? Happy? Terrified? My mind has been going in circles trying to figure out what she’s thinking, and I finally gather the sense to open my mouth and ask her how she’s doing.
“You okay?”
Her shoulders shrug, and she nuzzles against my chest. “I think I’m in shock.”
“Me too.”
More silence passes, and I worry I’ve really fucked up here. We are adults, so why didn’t we have this very basic conversation before having sex? Well, because I’m so miserable and she’s so stubborn that we had to have sex before either of us ever felt comfortable communicating. That’s why.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
She pulls away from me and sits up, her eyebrows scrunching together. “For what? This was both of our doing.”
“I know, but you didn’t have any control early on… I should have asked or used protection or…”
“Please. I practically forced myself on you the first time we had sex without thinking of the repercussions. It’s more my fault than yours. That was the stage where I was flirting with you, hoping that would help me escape.”
I give her a look.
“It was never that fake.” She shrugs. “I was constantly battling to stuff my own feelings down.”
I squint around the room, looking at all the presents, decorations, and half-eaten cake. “Is that what all of this was? This birthday stunt? You’re not going to escape from me now that I’ve actually fallen for you, are you?”
“Not unless I want you to chase me.”
She climbs onto my lap so that she’s facing me; my cock aches for her even after everything that we did last night on this boat.
“Hmm, now that sounds like a fun game to play.”
The captain makes an announcement that we’re docking now. I curse under my breath that there’s no time for us to do anything. So, I compromise with a kiss, my thumb rubbing her stomach.
“I’m worried it’ll all be too much,” she whispers.
“What do you mean?”
“You know me. I have my independent streak. I need to accomplish things to feel okay. What if the baby makes me deeply unhappy?”
“I’ll do whatever I can to help. We’ll hire anyone we need. It might be rough the first couple of years, but you’ll still be the same Sofia. I’ll never let anything kill the spark you have.”
I think about how often she works out and how difficult it’ll be to adjust to being pregnant. I’ll need to find a way to keep her mind occupied to help her cope with that—a job, maybe?
I’m exhausted from travel and all I want to do is lock me and Sofia in our wing and not talk to anyone else for a long time.
Sofia made it manageable, and I feel like I did bond with everyone, but the entire trip was introvert hell.
I suppose I can handle talking to my sister, finding out about how she spent her time alone in the castle with only the staff.
Hopefully, she feels relaxed and more like herself after Marco’s death.
I walk with my arm around Sofia as we make our way back to our wing.
“That was fun,” Sofia gives me a light smile.
“We should do it again. But next time, just the two of us on a secluded island.”
Sofia agrees and continues talking, but I notice Elio in the hallway, freaking out that someone isn’t answering their phone.
“Sorry, love.” I kiss her cheek, and take a few steps forward and ask him, “Is there a problem?”
His anger turns to… fear as he notices me. He quickly masks it, though, as he glances down at the floor and then back up to me. “It’s my mother. I can’t get a hold of her.”
“Is she ill?” I try to keep my demeanor looking concerned, but something seems off about this conversation. He’s lying to me.
“Not sure. I missed five phone calls while we were traveling, and now she’s not answering her phone.”
“I’m sure everything is fine, Elio.”
“Right.” He gives me a quick nod, then turns his back to me to look at his phone some more.
I get back to Sofia, and we continue walking in the long hallways. That’s one annoying thing about living in this place: when I get home I still need to walk five minutes.
“What was all that about?” she whispers when we’re out of earshot.
“I don’t know, but I think he’s hiding something from me.”
“I uh…” she hesitates to say something.
“What?”
“Last night he said something weird to me, and I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to make a scene.”
“What. Happened?”
“He gave me a hard time about not drinking and said I should have a coffee to perk up. But then he looked down at my stomach. It did not feel friendly.”
I look back to see him already gone.
“Why are you just telling me this now?”
“We were having such a good time last night, I didn’t want to ruin the vibe.”
Ruin the vibe.
Sofia getting killed because she’s pregnant with my child, making her an easy target, would ruin the vibe a bit more than me not having a last-minute birthday celebration.
But I hold my tongue, not wanting to start a fight with her.
And the thought of not sharing that night with her fills me with emptiness too—that was without a doubt the best night of my life.
Sofia seems to have that effect: constantly giving me the best nights of my life.
“I’ll deal with him later. And the next time something like that happens, tell me immediately.”
“Okay, I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” I kiss the top of her head.
We finally make it back to our wing. I bask in the quiet solitude. Sofia meanders to the couch in the other room and plops down.
“I’ll join you in a second. I’m craving a cigarette, unfortunately.” I wince as I say it. I talked to her about quitting just this morning when we found out about her condition. So, I made it not even a full day before caving.
She playfully rolls her eyes at me but doesn’t give me a hard time about it—it was more my idea than hers, anyway.
Obviously, as long as I don’t blow it right in her face while she’s pregnant, it won’t harm the baby.
But I’m going to be an older father. Who has lived a life of nothing but stress.
Whose doctor keeps threatening to put him on blood pressure medication.
I make my way to my hobby room, wondering if placing myself in a space I’d never want to smoke in will help me stave off the craving. It’s larger than the one I had at my old place. My bookshelves have some bare spots in them, begging me to add more books.
I head towards my desk and then grab my sketchbook and flip to the last pages. All of them are drawings of Sofia. Her smiling. Her sleeping. I haven’t told her I loved her yet, but I think she knows how I feel.
The late-afternoon sun peeks through the window, and I take a seat, fighting the impulse to pick up a book and distract myself immediately.
Negative memories or worries about the future seem to crop up within minutes.
But right now I’m utterly calm. The little voice inside my head is nagging me to take out my cigarettes, but everything else is quiet.
My entire life has been an uphill battle.
From living with a mother who couldn’t take care of herself, let alone two children, to moving in with a monster of a man.
Kept isolated. Being forced to commit unspeakable, violent acts as soon as Marco considered me old enough.
Eventually, I clawed my way up the mountain until enough people gained my respect despite Marco’s attempt at sabotaging me.
Most people with this type of upbringing, I’m sure, would end up homeless, in jail, and addicted to everything under the sun. And yet, I sit here in a castle. Rich. Powerful. And in love with a beautiful woman with a baby on the way.
My hand hovers over the cigarette pack in my pocket, then I ball my fist, resisting the craving again.
I worry I haven’t expressed to her how much she means to me.
What she did last night… Most people treat me like I’m some kind of rabid dog who has no feelings, and yet, Sofia felt horrible for me for missing out on something so basic.
Most of those gifts were just silly little things, but I’ll cherish them forever.
I inhale deeply, and decide to go back to Sofia.
But before that, I really should check in on my sister. I change course and find the staircase upstairs to the bedrooms.
I have been so swept off of my feet with Sofia that I worry I’ve been neglecting Elena.
We made up a bit in that last conversation when I ran into her in the hospital, but her not going on the trip to Greece bothers me.
Now that things are feeling stable with Sofia, I should really put my efforts into mending things with my sister.
There’s some music playing when I get up the stairs. Some background jazz music that I didn’t know Elena even liked.
Her bedroom door is wide open, but she wasn’t expecting us to get home for a while since we arrived ahead of schedule.
“Elena…”
I turn and stand in the doorway. Then freeze. She’s mounted on someone. Not dressed. This alone is traumatizing enough, but then her body is tossed to the side and Vincenzo sits up, looking at me with his hand covering his crotch.
Elena has a blanket wrapped around her already as she sits near the bed. If it were any other man she was with, I would have been gone by now, and apologized later.
But she’s with… Vincenzo?
The Vincenzo that was in a coma that I’ve nearly written off as dead?
The Vincenzo that I’ve hated since the first day we met?
The Vincenzo that’s our step-brother!?
I swallow back some vomit as I backpedal away from the bedroom. I barely even register the acidic taste in my mouth as my mind reels.
The bedroom door slams and their music shuts off as I lean against the wall in the hallway, my chest heaving in and out. Hushed voices hiss at each other back and forth.
I can’t make out most of the words, but one of Vincenzo’s sentences breaches the thick bedroom walls.
“You have no idea what plans are already in place.”
Plans? That could only mean killing me and taking over the throne.
Everything about Elena makes sense now. Is this why she’s gotten out of all of her marriage arrangements? Now that I think of it, she probably tasked me with killing the future husbands if Vincenzo was too busy. I was second string.
A disgusting thought creeps into my head. How long has their affair been going on for?
“No… no!” Elena shouts, and I hear footsteps coming towards me.
I pull my gun out and hurl my body over an antique chest that lies in the hallway, propping my wrists on it. It breaks my heart that this will hurt Elena and probably ruin our relationship permanently. But I have Sofia and the baby to think about.
The door opens.
My stepbrother’s gun is out, but he doesn’t spot me quickly enough.
I exhale and make my shot, desperate to only need to do this once so he doesn’t end up in a coma again. I hit him in the heart, and he drops to his knees. I curl up and hide behind the chest for a few moments in case he’s alive enough to fire back at me.
As I wait, the door from another room opens, and a man runs out of it and down the stairs. He’s dressed all in black, and it’s too quick to see if I recognize him. I question whether this man in black is even real or a hallucination.
My sister screams in agony like an animal, bringing me back to the Vincenzo situation.
My legs are unsteady as I stand up. A pool of blood forms underneath his body as my sister sobs over him.
“Elena…”
“Fuck you,” she growls. Her head snaps to look at me. I almost don’t recognize her with how much malice is in her eyes. It makes me recoil and take a few steps back. She grabs Vincenzo’s gun and points it at me.
“You wouldn’t,” I say.
She cocks the gun.